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  <div class="section" id="numpy-isscalar">
<h1>numpy.isscalar<a class="headerlink" href="#numpy-isscalar" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<dl class="function">
<dt id="numpy.isscalar">
<code class="sig-prename descclassname">numpy.</code><code class="sig-name descname">isscalar</code><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em class="sig-param">element</em><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/numpy/numpy/blob/v1.18.1/numpy/core/numeric.py#L1786-L1864"><span class="viewcode-link">[source]</span></a><a class="headerlink" href="#numpy.isscalar" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Returns True if the type of <em class="xref py py-obj">element</em> is a scalar type.</p>
<dl class="field-list simple">
<dt class="field-odd">Parameters</dt>
<dd class="field-odd"><dl class="simple">
<dt><strong>element</strong><span class="classifier">any</span></dt><dd><p>Input argument, can be of any type and shape.</p>
</dd>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt class="field-even">Returns</dt>
<dd class="field-even"><dl class="simple">
<dt><strong>val</strong><span class="classifier">bool</span></dt><dd><p>True if <em class="xref py py-obj">element</em> is a scalar type, False if it is not.</p>
</dd>
</dl>
</dd>
</dl>
<div class="admonition seealso">
<p class="admonition-title">See also</p>
<dl class="simple">
<dt><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ndim</span></code></dt><dd><p>Get the number of dimensions of an array</p>
</dd>
</dl>
</div>
<p class="rubric">Notes</p>
<p>If you need a stricter way to identify a <em>numerical</em> scalar, use
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">isinstance(x,</span> <span class="pre">numbers.Number)</span></code>, as that returns <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">False</span></code> for most
non-numerical elements such as strings.</p>
<p>In most cases <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">np.ndim(x)</span> <span class="pre">==</span> <span class="pre">0</span></code> should be used instead of this function,
as that will also return true for 0d arrays. This is how numpy overloads
functions in the style of the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">dx</span></code> arguments to <a class="reference internal" href="numpy.gradient.html#numpy.gradient" title="numpy.gradient"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">gradient</span></code></a> and the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">bins</span></code>
argument to <a class="reference internal" href="numpy.histogram.html#numpy.histogram" title="numpy.histogram"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">histogram</span></code></a>. Some key differences:</p>
<table class="docutils align-default">
<colgroup>
<col style="width: 53%" />
<col style="width: 21%" />
<col style="width: 26%" />
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr class="row-odd"><th class="head"><p>x</p></th>
<th class="head"><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">isscalar(x)</span></code></p></th>
<th class="head"><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">np.ndim(x)</span> <span class="pre">==</span> <span class="pre">0</span></code></p></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr class="row-even"><td><p>PEP 3141 numeric objects (including
builtins)</p></td>
<td><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">True</span></code></p></td>
<td><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">True</span></code></p></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-odd"><td><p>builtin string and buffer objects</p></td>
<td><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">True</span></code></p></td>
<td><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">True</span></code></p></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-even"><td><p>other builtin objects, like
<a class="reference external" href="https://docs.python.org/dev/library/pathlib.html#pathlib.Path" title="(in Python v3.9)"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">pathlib.Path</span></code></a>, <em class="xref py py-obj">Exception</em>,
the result of <a class="reference external" href="https://docs.python.org/dev/library/re.html#re.compile" title="(in Python v3.9)"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">re.compile</span></code></a></p></td>
<td><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">False</span></code></p></td>
<td><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">True</span></code></p></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-odd"><td><p>third-party objects like
<a class="reference external" href="https://matplotlib.org/api/_as_gen/matplotlib.figure.Figure.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure" title="(in Matplotlib v3.1.3)"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">matplotlib.figure.Figure</span></code></a></p></td>
<td><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">False</span></code></p></td>
<td><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">True</span></code></p></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-even"><td><p>zero-dimensional numpy arrays</p></td>
<td><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">False</span></code></p></td>
<td><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">True</span></code></p></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-odd"><td><p>other numpy arrays</p></td>
<td><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">False</span></code></p></td>
<td><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">False</span></code></p></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-even"><td><p><em class="xref py py-obj">list</em>, <em class="xref py py-obj">tuple</em>, and other sequence
objects</p></td>
<td><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">False</span></code></p></td>
<td><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">False</span></code></p></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p class="rubric">Examples</p>
<div class="doctest highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">isscalar</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mf">3.1</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="go">True</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">isscalar</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">array</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mf">3.1</span><span class="p">))</span>
<span class="go">False</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">isscalar</span><span class="p">([</span><span class="mf">3.1</span><span class="p">])</span>
<span class="go">False</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">isscalar</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="kc">False</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="go">True</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">isscalar</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;numpy&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="go">True</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>NumPy supports PEP 3141 numbers:</p>
<div class="doctest highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="kn">from</span> <span class="nn">fractions</span> <span class="kn">import</span> <span class="n">Fraction</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">isscalar</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">Fraction</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">5</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">17</span><span class="p">))</span>
<span class="go">True</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="kn">from</span> <span class="nn">numbers</span> <span class="kn">import</span> <span class="n">Number</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">isscalar</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">Number</span><span class="p">())</span>
<span class="go">True</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
</dd></dl>

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